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PSP Vs. DS One Year Later
1up has a feature revisiting the ongoing struggle for supremacy in the handheld market. The PSP and the DS have had many ups and downs in the past year, and the column lays out the successes and failures for both systems. From the article: "And then there were two. The DS is cleaning up in Japan -- the sheer demand for the console there has siphoned every single unit from the marketplace, while PSPs sit unloved on store shelves. But here in the U.S., it's a neck-and-neck race. And, since the PSP launched one year ago on March 24th, 2005, we thought it'd be an excellent time to revisit the past year and gauge the situation as it stands today."
I would take that one step further and say that mature games are markted towards 13-25 year olds.
I have a kid. A lot of my friends have kids. My parents baby sit a lot of kids.
Lets just say I am around a lot of kids.
Probably close to 70% of them (the boys) are all about the Mature rated games. I'm talking 8 year olds to 16 year olds here.
All of my cousines are between those ages (and I have a ton) ALL have PS2's and games like GTA3.
Infact my roommates son who is 12 makes FUN OF ME for playing Nintendo games. Seriously.
Just a few responses to your criticisms of the PSP (I don't own a DS so I can't comment) -
in-game battery life is a short four hoursThis is partially true. If you play a game on full brightness, you have really low battery life. However, I've managed to play a game on low brightness for up to 8 hours before. I can't really comment on wireless play, as I haven't tried it on battery power, just plugged in.
the screen is extremely easy to scratch or mar with fingerprintsVery true with the fingerprints. I also get lots of dust on mine when I put it in my pocket while listening to MP3s. However, it wipes off easy with the provided dustcloth and while there is a great cleaning FAQ on IGN that talks about using car wax, I've used a wet cotton cloth on it just fine with no problems. I've owned mine since July of last year and have bought two different screen covers (the stupid Pelican Face Armor kept breaking, so I found a nicer one that isn't attached to the actual PSP) that have prevented scratches really well. I don't have any that I can say are permanent scratches after 8 months or so. It definitely depends on how well you take care of your device, of course.
game load time is excessively long on occasion.Many games are hampered by this problem, but it is possible to overcome this. The Sims has a horrible problem with load times, as does Madden (which is a horrible game, don't buy it) and Ape Escape, however other games such as Grand Theft Auto and FIFA Soccer (the original) aren't bad and Ridge Racer, Virtua Tennis, and Mercury have great load times. My initial feeling on this was that it was the UMD, which is partially true. I think the 100% truth is that the UMD is slow, but good programming and testing by the developer can definitely overcome the UMD's shortcomings. The more publishers/developers are criticized for not taking the speed of the UMD into account, the better load times I think we'll see.
On a totally unrelated to the parent post comment, I'm really looking forward to the library of games that are listed to come out this spring for the PSP. Lemmings, Worms, Mega Man, Katamari (which, not owning a PS2, I've never played), and Field Commander look like they all have great potential. I wouldn't count out the PSP due to a horrible games library just yet.
Gonna pull you up on three things..
1. The DS's main screen doesn't scratch easy.. on the other hand the Stylus's are slightly sharp when held at an angle, so you must have a screen protector. I've had my DS a year and the screen protector is honestly scratched to all hell. Get screen protection for your DS.
2. Graphics capability are underwhelming? Gameboy colour = NES, GBA = SNES, DS=N64. Seems to be a natural evolution to me. The DS looks better than the N64 with Mario 64 but doesn't play quite as well as the N64 did (D-pad isn't so great as a stick). As for the speakers.. well turn the DS up to full, it's louder than I'd have my TV on.. you hear everything fine. If anything I think the DS maybe a little too loud.
3. You've just hit the nail on the head. PSP is a portable console, complete with loading times and "Oh we can make better graphics than you!" ideals. Nintendo know full well that doesn't work, you must make a handheld console, a handheld console. While GTA may be great for an evening in, doing 30-40 minute missions after a 5 minute loading is just a bad idea for most people going places. I went to the hospital a few days ago and had to wait to see a doctor (1am emergency clinic), I was in pain and rather restless, so I took my DS and when I felt like playing I just turned on Mario kart, when I wanted to stop I turned it off. 4-5 minute bursts when I needed to distract myself from the pain. That's how most people play handhelds. 10-20 minute journeys, waiting in line, going to the bathroom etc.
The PSP tries to be a shark in a fish pond. It's big, bad, oh so pretty and can beat anyone up in the pond. But it's so big and bad it can't get around the lake, so it loses out to the little fish who can just side step it. The PSP has been side stepped over and over. It hasn't quite figured out why it's being beaten yet and as soon as it does, it'll see that a shark just doesn't work in a pond full of tiny gold fish.
I like muppets.
Emulation is the only reason I would want a PSP actually.
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I know this is a silly point to contend on, but DS development really isn't all that expensive. You can easily get everything you need for about $80.
GBA Movie Player: $25
CF Card: around $30, more or less depending on capacity
PassMe: $25
Roll in the DS and that's still not as expensive as a PSP base package. (And that's assuming you don't get one or more components for free; for example, I bought a wireless card for WifiMe, flashed my firmware and returned it the next day; and for some reason all my relatives have used CF cards they don't want any more, so my DS devkit ended up costing a stellar 25 bucks.)
I'd also like to point out that flashing your DS's firmware is not a "mod" in the traditional sense - you don't solder anything, there are no exposed boards; you just stick a metal bit in one easily accessible hole next to the battery casing for a few seconds. It's pretty damn foolproof.
Also, as someone already pointed out, the DS is not "living hardware" like the PSP; you can still play games on it without ever losing your mod. (The first 64k of the DS's firmware is write-protected - thus the circuit shorting - and in the modded firmware, this includes the code that passes execution to the GBA slot.)
When the DS and PSP were revealed to the public, but not yet released, I thought that I would probably purchase both, but get the DS first. I got as far as the DS, and I don't think I'll be picking up a PSP. There's a lot of cool things about both systems, but when it comes down to it, I love the touchscreen. The PSP offers me a portable version of PS2 gaming, which is cool and all, but I don't really play video games away from the house, even with my DS. Since I have the PS2 experience at home, I might as well get the console that has totally different gameplay? If you haven't seen the bonus games that came with Super Mario 64 DS, they are a perfect example of what is possible with touch screen gaming. The ones where you draw a line, and it becomes a trampoline for Mario are amazing. There's some game coming out that's a RTS RPG (the stylus is a great replacement for the mouse, so PC style strategy and FPS games work quite well) where the player casts spells by writing runes on the screen. The better your handwriting, the more powerful the spells. It's quite cool to have a totally unique perspective on gaming like that, and the GBA support means I have Street Fighter Alpha 2 on it.
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Oh yeah, please buy my computer.